The NFC-on-MicroSD supplier has announced that a protective case designed to add near field communication functionality to the iPhone is now available.
DeviceFidelity has confirmed that, as we reported on 4 May, its In2Pay NFC MicroSD solution is now available for the iPhone.
The solution, which has been certified by Apple, was developed in collaboration with Visa and uses a protective case which is designed to stay permanently attached to the iPhone and which provides a micro USB slot for users to sync and charge their devices. Users then simply insert a standard In2Pay MicroSD card into the case and can then use their iPhone to make payments at merchants equipped to accept contactless payments. Trials are scheduled to start during the second quarter of 2010.
“The more than 200,000 apps on the App Store are an integral part of iPhone users’ lives,” says Amitaabh Malhotra, COO of DeviceFidelity. “With our In2Pay solution, we want to give both iPhone users and app developers the power to do even more, by putting the convenience of interactive secure mobile transactions, right at their fingertips, anywhere they are.”
“Visa is working to bring the security and convenience of digital currency to mobile users around the world,” adds Dave Wentker, head of mobile contactless payments at Visa. “Our collaboration with DeviceFidelity can extend the reach of Visa mobile payments to millions of iPhone users.”
Visa announced in February that it would be running a number of field trials using DeviceFidelity’s MicroSD technology from the second quarter of this year.
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So the news are finally confirmed…
If Apple were to introduce an NFC-based iPhone this would be a convenient fallback option for legacy iPhones.
I wonder if its just a coincidence that these news leaked just a few weeks before Apple’s WWDC?
At best this is a convoluted system… at worst it’s a dogs dinner of SD cards and chargers.
And I stand by my comment about truthful headlines – NFC World should set itself higher standards ie:
DeviceFidelity confirms availability of Visa-enabled iPhone case.
Well, I take your point – this may not be the most elegant of solutions. But it is *a* solution and the fact that the device plugs into the iPhone via its dock connector does make it more than just a case…